HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Bob Baffert took it easy on Lookin At Lucky while preparing for Saturday’s Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. That strategy nearly cost him a victory but he was content with how the top 3-year-old on the road to the Kentucky Derby fared in the 1<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>16-mile race.

“He passed all the tests,” Baffert said after Lookin At Lucky recovered from a hard bump in the backstretch and won by a head over Noble’s Promise. “I wanted to prep him for the next one. I didn’t want to run him off the screen today. Even if he had run second it would have been OK.”

In his first race since December, Lookin At Lucky was four wide in the turn for home and outran Noble’s Promise. Dublin finished third, three lengths back. In the backstretch, Lookin At Lucky and Noble’s Promise bumped, but both had cleared most of the field by the top of the stretch.

“I didn’t know how a young horse would react to that, but mine dug back like a real professional,” jockey Garrett Gomez said. “Coming to the wire, I thought we’d get the other horse, even though mine was tiring. This race will really help my colt.”

Watching a replay of the stretch run, Baffert laughed as his horse dug in beneath Gomez.

“Right here he is saying `Dammit, Bob, I wish you would have trained me harder for this,”‘ Baffert said.